Control System for the Synthesis of Thin Films by Pulsed Laser Deposition

The pulsed laser ablation process is a widely used technique for thin films deposition. In this method, a pulsed laser beam focuses onto a target ablating the impact site, called spot. Since preparing the target is a highly time consuming and expensive task, the spot is generally scanned across the target?s surface. A typical pulsed laser deposition configuration has a moving mirror that scans the laser beam across a rotating target. We propose ablating the target with a spiral pattern to ensure a uniform ablation and maximizing the target?s efficiency. This requires moving the mirror and target in sync with variable speeds. To this end, we designed and built robust electromechanical actuators driven by stepper motors, which are electronically controlled by an Arduino-based system. The core of the firmware is a precalculated lookup table with the time intervals between the motors? steps. Thus, motor control following computationally expensive positioning functions -as the spiral pattern- are not a problem. Users may operate the control system through a user-friendly interface. The modular firmware architecture facilitates future extensions as, for example, adding other motor positioning functions to enable different ablation patterns for research purposes. This development aims to be a valuable tool for the synthesis of thin films by pulsed laser deposition.Fil: Conde Garrido, Juan Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería "Hilario Fernández Long". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería "Hilario Fernández Long"; ArgentinaFil: Kuo, Cristina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Silveyra, Josefina María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería "Hilario Fernández Long". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería "Hilario Fernández Long"; Argentin

Produtos educacionais para o ensino, a aprendizagem e a formação em Educação Matemática: contribuições do PPG Educação Matemática UFJF

Este artigo encontra-se disponível no seguinte link: https://periodicos.ufjf.br/index.php/ridema/article/view/31463Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar uma caracterização dos Produtos Educacionais produzidos pelo PPG em Educação Matemática (PPGEM) da Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF) ao longo de seus 10 anos de existência. Dada a vinculação dos Produtos às Dissertações ambos foram objeto de análise. O trabalho de análise das Dissertações para identificar focos e subfocos tomou como referência inicial estudos anteriores de Fiorentini que categorizavam as temáticas de investigação em Educação Matemática. Contudo, precisaram ser adaptados e ampliados, pois com uma diferença temporal de quase 20 anos, novas problemáticas de pesquisa foram constituídas. Assim, emergiram novos focos e subfocos dada a diversidade temática observada nessas produções. A análise permitiu identificar a convergência das Dissertações e Produtos Educacionais com as linhas de pesquisa consideradas no Programa, bem como a prevalência de três temáticas de investigação: Educação Financeira, História da Educação Matemática e Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação na Educação Matemática. De acordo com os resultados do mapeamento dos Produtos Educacionais, foi constatado que a predominância é de trabalhos com foco nos mesmos temas das dissertações, além de uma quantidade significativa que trata de temas relacionados à Geometria. Foi observado também que grande parte dos Produtos é apresentada na forma de atividades e tarefas, igualmente destinada a professores e alunos

Finanças é Assunto de Criança? Uma Proposta de Educação Financeira nos Anos Iniciais

O presente artigo surge de trabalhos realizados pelo Grupo Investigações no Ensino de Matemática e Ciências, Programa de Pós-Graduação no Ensino das Ciências na Universidade UNIGRANRIO e tem como objetivo discutir o ensino de Educação Financeira nos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental. Apesar de muitas pessoas acharem que dinheiro não é assunto para criança, é necessário refletir sobre valores e posturas da vida adulta que tem sua construção iniciada na infância, principalmente na sociedade atual em que o consumo vem se tornando uma das principais preocupações dos órgãos nacionais e internacionais. Este artigo apresenta argumentos que validam a importância da abordagem dos temas relacionados a finanças no âmbito da Educação Matemática nos anos iniciais, de forma a colaborar na formação da consciência cidadã do aluno

Gut microbial diversity is associated with lower arterial stiffness in women

© The Author(s)2018 All rights reserved. Aims The gut microbiome influences metabolic syndrome (MetS) and inflammation and is therapeutically modifiable. Arterial stiffness is poorly correlated with most traditional risk factors. Our aim was to examine whether gut microbial composition is associated with arterial stiffness.Methods We assessed the correlation between carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), a measure of arterial stiffness, and and results gut microbiome composition in 617 middle-aged women from the TwinsUK cohort with concurrent serum metabolomics data. Pulse wave velocity was negatively correlated with gut microbiome alpha diversity (Shannon index, Beta(SE)= -0.25(0.07), P = 1 10 -4 ) after adjustment for covariates. We identified seven operational taxonomic units associated with PWV after adjusting for covariates and multiple testing—two belonging to the Ruminococcaceae family. Associations between microbe abundances, microbe diversity, and PWV remained significant after adjustment for levels of gut-derived metabolites (indolepropionate, trimethylamine oxide, and phenylacetylglutamine). We linearly combined the PWV-associated gut microbiome-derived variables and found that microbiome factors explained 8.3% (95% confidence interval 4.3–12.4%) of the variance in PWV. A formal mediation analysis revealed that only a small proportion (5.51%) of the total effect of the gut microbiome on PWV was mediated by insulin resistance and visceral fat, c-reactive protein, and cardiovascular risk factors after adjusting for age, body mass index, and mean arterial pressure. Conclusions Gut microbiome diversity is inversely associated with arterial stiffness in women. The effect of gut microbiome composition on PWV is only minimally mediated by MetS. This first human observation linking the gut microbiome to arterial stiffness suggests that targeting the microbiome may be a way to treat arterial ageing

The chemopreventive polyphenol Curcumin prevents hematogenous breast cancer metastases in immunodeficient mice

Dissemination of metastatic cells probably occurs long before diagnosis of the primary tumor. Metastasis during early phases of carcinogenesis in high risk patients is therefore a potential prevention target. The plant polyphenol Curcumin has been proposed for dietary prevention of cancer. We therefore examined its effects on the human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 in vitro and in a mouse metastasis model. Curcumin strongly induces apoptosis in MDA- MB- 231 cells in correlation with reduced activation of the survival pathway NF kappa B, as a consequence of diminished I kappa B and p65 phosphorylation. Curcumin also reduces the expression of major matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) due to reduced NF kappa B activity and transcriptional downregulation of AP-1. NF kappa B/p65 silencing is sufficient to downregulate c-jun and MMP expression. Reduced NF kappa B/AP-1 activity and MMP expression lead to diminished invasion through a reconstituted basement membrane and to a significantly lower number of lung metastases in immunodeficient mice after intercardiac injection of 231 cells (p=0.0035). 68% of Curcumin treated but only 17% of untreated animals showed no or very few lung metastases, most likely as a consequence of down-regulation of NF kappa B/AP-1 dependent MMP expression and direct apoptotic effects on circulating tumor cells but not on established metastases. Dietary chemoprevention of metastases appears therefore feasible. Copyright (c) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel

A Phase 1 study of the novel gamma-secretase inhibitor PF-03084014 in patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma

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Organic compounds in PM2.5 emitted from fireplace and woodstove combustion of typical Portuguese wood species

The aim of this study is the further characterisation of PM2.5 emissions from the residential wood combustion of common woods grown in Portugal. This new research extends to eight the number of biomass fuels studied and tries to understand the differences that the burning appliance (fireplace versus woodstove) and the combustion temperature (cold and hot start) have on emissions. Pinus pinaster (Maritime pine), Eucalyptus globulus (eucalypt), Quercus suber (cork oak), Acacia longifolia (Golden wattle), Quercus faginea (Portuguese oak), Olea europea (Olive), Quercus ilex rotundifolia (Holm oak) and briquettes produced from forest biomass waste were used in the combustion tests. Determinations included fine particle emission factors, carbonaceous content (OC and EC) by a thermaleoptical transmission technique and detailed identification and quantification of organic compounds by gas chromatographyemass spectrometry. Fine particle emission factors from the woodstove were lower than those from the fireplace. For both combustion appliances, the OC/EC ratio was higher in “cold start” tests (1.56 0.95 for woodstove and 2.03 1.34 for fireplace). These “cold start” OC/EC values were, respectively, for the woodstove and the fireplace, 51% and 69% higher than those obtained in “hot start” experiments. The chromatographically resolved organics included n-alkanes, n-alkenes, PAHs, n-alkanals, ketones, n-alkanols, terpenoids, triterpenoids, phenolic compounds, phytosterols, alcohols, n-alkanoic acids, n-di-acids, unsaturated acids and alkyl esters of acids. The smoke emission rate and composition varied widely depending on fuel type, burning appliance and combustion temperature

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum